Email, Social Media Insults Enough to Charge Under IPC: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court (HC) has confirmed that written remarks made in emails or on social media that insult or degrade a woman can be charged under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This ruling came from a case where a man from a society in Colaba was accused of sending an insulting email to another resident.

The email in question was sent not only to the woman but also to other members of the society. The complainant is now over 70 years old. The man sought to have the First Information Report (FIR) against him quashed.  

He argued that Section 509 of the IPC, which deals with words, gestures, or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman, should only apply to spoken words, not to written ones. However, the court rejected his argument. 

The bench, consisting of Justices Ajey Gadkari and Neela Gokhale, said that the law must evolve with society. They stated that the law must adapt to address new issues and support social progress. The judges noted that modern technology allows for insults to be made in various ways, including through emails and social media. 

They questioned whether criminals should be allowed to escape punishment just because their insults were written rather than spoken. The bench also pointed out that interpreting the term "utterance" narrowly would allow many offenders to avoid punishment simply because they used electronic means to insult women.

The court highlighted that technology now makes it possible to commit such crimes without physically displaying the insulting material. Instead, a person can use a computer, phone, or other electronic device to share offensive content.

The dispute started after the mother of the complainant was appointed as the society's chairperson. The FIR filed in December 2008 claimed that the man sent several emails containing offensive remarks about the complainant's character. The court stressed that these emails were intended to damage the complainant's image in the eyes of society and others who received them.

As a result, the court upheld the charges against the man under Section 509 of the IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act. However, the court dropped charges under Section 354 of the IPC, which relates to using criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty.